Breakthrough star Alicia Dudeney leading the World Tennis Tour in 2026

After the halfway point of the year, Dudeney has won five World Tennis Tour singles titles – the most of any women’s singles player so far.

Dudeney is undefeated in finals this season, winning five from five, including her career-best victory at the Lexus British Pro Series Nottingham W50 tournament in July, where she beat Britain’s Naiktha Bains 6-3, 7-6(5).

Two of her five titles this year have come at tournaments on home soil as part of our LTA Performance Competitions Calendar - providing enhanced opportunities for British players at each age and stage of the performance player pathway.

The young Brit has won an impressive 37 singles matches already, which ranks fourth across all players on the World Tennis Tour. That also includes a 16-match winning streak in World Tennis Tour matches from May – July.

That’s not to mention the additional three World Tennis doubles titles she’s won this year, with the Lexus British Pro Series Manchester W50 event at the start of the year a clear standout result.

Before the start of June last year, Dudeney didn’t even have a WTA ranking. Fast forward to this summer, and the British star achieved a career-high ranking at world No.224 in July and narrowly missed out on a place in US Open qualifying.

"I’m really happy with the progress I’ve made so far this year," she said. "I’ve been working really hard all year to improve my game and it feels great to see some of those efforts paying off in my results.

"It’s really motivated me to keep working and improving to keep having good results throughout the rest of the year."

Her impressive results earned her a wild card spot at Wimbledon this summer, and she made her main draw debut in a 6-3, 6-3 loss against Alycia Parks.

Dudeney has also had wild card opportunities at the Lexus Eastbourne Open, Lexus Birmingham Open and Lexus Ilkley Open, and she qualified for the Lexus Nottingham Open WTA 250 – her first tour-level event.

"To play my first full grass season and ending up getting to play main draw of Wimbledon has to be my highlight not just this year, but throughout my career so far.

"It’s been my dream to get to compete at all of these British events, especially Wimbledon so to get to do it all within my first year on tour has been so special!"

Learn more about Alicia Dudeney

Alicia Dudeney’s tennis journey so far

Dudeney grew up in Hove and started playing tennis at the age of seven. She began her journey at the Pavilion and Avenue Tennis Club – the same club that former top-50 star Sonay Kartal trains at.

As a junior, she reached the girls’ singles quarter-finals at Wimbledon in 2021, which was the only junior Grand Slam event she played.

She was previously supported by the LTA NCAA Programme and competed for the University of Florida from 2021-2025 before turning professional.

Whilst at Florida, she was named in the 2025 All-SEC First Team and made the semi-finals of the NCAA Doubles Championship in 2024.

In her first six months on tour at the end of 2025, she won three singles and six doubles titles, and the young Brit has only gone on to improve in her first full season.

After a rapid rise over the last 12 months, we can expect to see a lot more of Dudeney throughout the rest of the season and years to come.

"I’m really excited to get back out there for the rest of the year. After a small setback and having to miss the US open I’ve used this time to have a small training block and it’s made me really excited to get back out there competing the rest of the year.

"I feel like I’ve picked up so much experience over the last few months and I hope I can carry that with me in the tournaments I have coming up throughout the rest of this year.

"My goal is to keep having some good results and qualify for Australia at the start of next year."